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Did the Brits Burn Churches?

Couper SamuelsonPosted Monday, July 10, 2000, at 6:00 PM ET

In the new Mel Gibson film The Patriot, British soldiers are shown committing various atrocities against colonials during the American Revolution, such as locking civilians in a church and setting it on fire. Did the British actually violate the rules of war as the film alleges?

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Many histories of the war document instances in which British and American soldiers shot prisoners of war or, more commonly, enemy soldiers trying to surrender. (This was considered a violation of the rules of war at the time and remains so today.)

Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton--the model for The Patriot's main villain--reportedly killed more than a hundred colonial prisoners in South Carolina and was dubbed "Bloody Ban." The term "Tarleton's quarter" signified no quarter at all.

The journal of Thomas McCarty, a sergeant in the 8th Virginia Regiment, reports that British regulars shot civilians (at least two of them women) who were tending to wounded colonials after a nighttime engagement near New Brunswick on Feb. 1, 1777. After a skirmish in Newtown, N.Y., in 1779, two lieutenant colonels under Gen. John Sullivan were captured by the British. A fellow prisoner, John Salmon, recounted in his diary that when the two officers refused to give up the location of Sullivan's army, they "were put to death with terrible torture."

But historians generally agree that the rebels probably violated the rules of war more often than the British. Francis Marion, who led a band of militiamen in South Carolina (and whom Gibson's character most closely resembles), ordered his men to fire upon a group of British regulars and American Tories who had surrendered. A witness described it thus: "Numerous Tories died with their hands in the air."

In 1778, Georgia militiamen captured, stripped, and killed British Lt. John Kemp along with nine of his men for refusing to renounce the king. And the term "lynching" comes from Col. Charles Lynch of Virginia, who became famous for extra-legal executions of Tory sympathizers.

The church-burning scene in The Patriot is actually based on an incident from World War II, when Nazi soldiers burned a group of French villagers alive. There is no evidence that a similar event took place during the American Revolution.

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Explainer thanks history professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and lecturer Elisabeth B. Nichols, both of Harvard University.

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Couper Samuelson is a Slate intern.

COMMENTS

Reader Response from The Fray:

There is a great deal about The Patriot that has nothing to do with reality. The idea that the colonists were all armed to the teeth is another popular myth that gets some massaging here. According to records from the period, less than ten percent of the population owned a gun (many of them in disrepair) on the eve of the Revolution. Indeed, much of George Washington's correspondence throughout the war reflects his concern about this problem. He repeatedly begged Congress for weapons, bullets and powder. The lack of same forced him into what amounted to a three year retreat. The French bailed us out with a massive infusion of arms toward the end of the war.

--Eddie E.

(To reply, click here.)

Tarleton

reportedly killed more than a hundred colonial prisoners in Virginia and was dubbed "Bloody Ban."

I think the correct location was at Waxhaw, South Carolina. On May 29, 1780, Americans surrendered to Tarleton only to be given no quarter and slaughtered: 113 were killed on the field and another 150 were badly maimed. The killing was done by bayonet and sword. The Americans were commanded by Colonel Abraham Buford. Perhaps the fact that they were largely Virginians accounts for the mislocation of the encounter. I was unable to find such an event taking place in Virginia, save Tarleton's near capture of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry.

--Crash Davis

(To reply, click here.)

[From the Fray Editor: Alan Elms disputed the derivation of the word lynching. Ross Blount thought the church-burning paralleled events at Waco. And we at The Fray need another Explainer on how A.G.Android managed to link The Patriot with the current British Home Secretary and call it Whiffs of Fascism. You go, Android.]

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